For students who want to pursue independent projects, exemptions provide freedom and time. Art and music exemptions are popular among students who crave co-curricular time to further develop their artistic skills

“Exemptions afford passionate musicians or artists time to practice and work on a project,” said Yong-Hun Kim ’15, who has a music exemption. “Without a specific time set for this, we’d only be able to practice twice a week outside of classes.”

“I’m taking part in an exemption because I have the passion and want more time to explore my abilities in the arts,” said Lauren Stobierski ’14, who has an art exemption.

“Some people get an art exemption because they want to skip an introductory course and go straight to the AP level,” said Shelton Rodgers ‘15, who also has an art exemption.

Just like any other co- curricular, exemptions require daily attendance. Students must also have an advisor who keeps tabs on the their progress during the course of the term.

“During co-curricular time, we mainly practice,” Kim said. “We’re required to be in the practice rooms for at least 90 minutes. Occasionally we have performances at Second Helpings.”

For Rodgers, an art exemption has allowed her to balance her work load: “I spend my art exemption time working on my portfolio without it taking time away from homework for other subjects.”

“We follow whatever passion for music we have, like playing the piano, composing, et cetera,” added Yuri Lee ’15.

According to Kim, students with exemptions aren’t looking for an excuse not to play sports.

“I don’t choose to do it to be exempted from a sport, but to be able to spend more time with music.” “I love music, and music is my top priority,” said Lee, “It’s an area that I’d like to indulge myself in.”

These students are especially excited about the renovation of the Memorial Building, although it has come at a cost this year.

“Because of the renovation of the Memorial building, the arts program has been moved to a remote location,” Stobierski said. “However, I know that the new building will have more student galleries than ever before.”

As the opportunity remains to seek out exemptions, students will continue to take advantage of the chance to refine their artistic skills in exemptions.